Lets’s face it. Cancer is shit. It makes its appearance at a random time in many people’s lives, turning normal lives into chaos, destroying families, cutting people off in their prime. It is no respecter of religion, IQ, gentility, accent or nationality. It just happens, and the result is devastation. No one is immune. Doctors, Pharmaceutical executives, Health gurus, Herbalists; all have suffered from it. The most powerful people in the world, the great executives, presidents and ministers: cancer sufferers and victims come from their ranks too.

It is the great problem of our age. Nobody yet has cracked all its codes. Progress towards cures have been painfully slow. The drugs used can have terrible side effects. Treatment can be drawn out, painful and dreadfully uncertain. People continue to die – in their millions. Its existence and intractability has motivated many a young person to pursue a career trying to do something about it. Theirs is a thankless, frustrating, yet honourable, life.

If you are there for people, giving freely of your time, offering words of kindness, love and encouragement, easing the burden however small, then I salute you. It’s these acts of humanity that inspire us all.

If, however, you declare that you have a cure, when it flies in the face of common knowledge; if you put peoples lives in your hands, manipulating their hopes with your sweet empty words; if you drain them of money while adopting the mantle of bruised martyr then the word ‘scumbag’ is yours to keep. You are truly beneath contempt.

Cancer is shit. It is too serious for words. Modern treatment is like a frontline battle in a war we continue to lose. Sufferers need patience, care and compassion, not some fly-by-night magic potion bereft of substance. Pretending that you have a cure and building a career off this pretence is practically the worst deceit imaginable. My wishes for such people? May your roads all contain potholes. May the wind punch you in the face. May you die roaring.